intangible cultural heritage

Guiding

area : Soca valley
category : practices concerning nature
Guiding knowledge came (and comes) from local everyday life, since in Trenta nothing was easy: extreme mining, mowing grass on mountaintops, hauling sacks of flour over the Vršič pass, or carrying chamois on the back whilst on steep mountain edges.
The origins of mountaineering go back to 1876, when the Austrian ‘Alpenverein’ from Villach built a hut on the Mangart saddle, and in 1906, when the Slovenian Alpine Association organised the first course for mountain guides. Poachers were the first ones that introduced the inaccessible world of the Trenta Mountains to famous researchers such as Dr. Julius Kugy, Dr. Henrik Tuma and Albert Bois de Chesne. We must also mention Jože Abram, a chaplain who, during his service, was famous in Trenta and gained recognition for labelling mountain paths in Slovenian. The most recognised guides were Andrej and Jože Komac - Pavr, Anton Tožbar - Špik and Ivan Berginc – Štrukelj, who also conducted the first rescue operation in the Slovenian mountains, when Dr. Stojc had an accident on Škrlatica in 1909. These achievements gain even greater significance, considering that for climbing, tools from home were used instead of climbing gear.

Guiding knowledge came (and comes) from local everyday life, since in Trenta nothing was easy: extreme mining, mowing grass on mountaintops, hauling sacks of flour over the Vršič pass, or carrying chamois on the back whilst on steep mountain edges. Henrik Tuma, who did many tours with the first guides, wrote: “Jože Komac Pavr is the best Slovenian guide ... If there is an approach or passage, he finds it and, a daring poacher in his youth, traces even the most minimal chamois track. And where the chamois goes, we go too. Even though he is 52 years old, he is extremely powerful. In his youth he often carried one bag of quintal from Log across Zadnjica footbridge and over Loški Vršič to the church. This is a good 25 minute walk and 100m slope! A narrow path leads from the meadows beneath Trenta Pelc, on which tourist walks almost tremble over precipices, where he bore 112kg of dry hay bind in a sheet. One can hardly believe it.”

Guiding and providing accommodation for visitors was lucrative for locals back then and is likewise fundamental for the tourism industry nowadays. The Bovec region is renowned today as a tourist destination of excellence, thanks to that figure of a healthy, strong, fearless and upright Trenta guide, who was able to show the Bovec mountains to the first visitors. The preservation of this heritage today is confirmed by the existence of modern guiding services for classic mountaineering, kayaking or rafting, canyoning, tandem paragliding, caving and many other activities.
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